Saturday, April 21, 2012

Tips on Memorable Wedding Date

Weddings as a happy occasion usually held on good day, this term can have lots of meanings but lately a beautiful wedding date or in Indonesian “tanggal pernikahan cantik” does not necessarily mean a result of a complex calculated birth days or to avoid unlucky days, but simply a memorable numbers. Like the wedding of Indonesian celebrity, Irfan hakim, which held on 07-07-2007 all with seven on it, this seven-theme extend to the dowry, which also had seven numbers in it. Last year we even had the chance to do a wedding church décor for a couple who married on 11-11-2011 at 11.11 AM, cool huh?

These memorable wedding date had been a phenomenon for quite a few years and might continue in the future. Of course, the same number on date month and year will end this year  at 12-12-2012 but lots of other combination can be made to make a memorable wedding date such as 11-12-2013 (11-12-13)  or 20-12-2012 for instance and many others. Since getting married on memorable date becomes a trend, it’s interesting to see if memorable wedding date is really a good idea after all…

The most reasons for picking out a wedding date with memorable number is to make the couple easily remembers their wedding date, so no more excuse for forgetting your anniversary date. The other reason is because it's a trend and since lots of people have to compete for booking venues and stuff on a memorable date, thus being able to get married on memorable day is considered an achievement.
Whatever your reason, we would like to share with you a few things to be considered if you’re trying to get a memorable number for your wedding date :
1.      Cost
Yep, the economy rules. The more people wants to get married on a certain date, the bigger chance for venue or ballroom owner as well as caterers to increase the price. Why? For venue it’s because they have more bargaining power when lots of people want to use a hall or ballroom. For caterers because more demand will increase the ingredient price, this of course will effect the end price.
As for wedding décor, especially the ones using fresh flowers, the price will increase 50 to 100%. If you’re on very tight budget, consider artificial flowers with basic design instead.
2.      Quality
Flowers are harvested annually according to season so the supply is basically constant. In case of high demand, to fulfill orders many planters substitute full bloom flowers with smaller buds or give lower grade flowers. We experienced this ourselves, for the same price, the quality of the flowers declined. This might also applied to food so you must consider this too.
3.      Time
When lots of people want to get married on the same date, the competition begins. Most venues, caterers and decorators must be booked a year maybe even two year in advance, so the wedding must be planned far way ahead. What will you do if on the date the church can be booked, decorator can be booked but the venues had already fully booked or the rental price had increased unreasonably?
4.      Schedule
On 11-11-2011 last year, we noticed significant traffic jam in Bandung area eventhough it’s not weekend. Reason? The wedding guests' vehicles J. In St Peter’s Cathedral itself held 5 weddings, (we haven’t counted weddings occurred that day in other churches and mosques all over Bandung) so lots of guest’s cars parked overflowed to Merdeka street, just like Christmas mass. So consider traffic in your schedule, you might get late to the church or reception venue because of it.

Also prepare in case you have to rush. Usually, after the wedding mass, the couple and family will have a photo session (with the pastor and by themselves) inside and outside the church. Afterward, most guests would like to  congratulate the couple before the crowd dispersed. Depending on guests numbers, this usually takes time between 30 minutes to one hour. On 11-11-2011, since there are 5 weddings held that day, after the mass the couple only had time around 5 minutes to take pictures inside the church, then the church committee announced the couple and guests to went outside before congratulating ritual so that guests for the next wedding can come in. When we step outside, whooaa!! There’s already crowd standing there waiting and rushing inside.
Lesson : on days when lots of wedding occurred in church, less leisurely time to take pictures and stuff… younger people might not overly concern with this, but older parents and relatives might get a bit miffed when they have to rush here and there.

Reception time must be well planned too. The couple who got married at 11.11 AM held their wedding reception at 12.30 PM. Hence the traffic and so on, the couple arrived at 01.00 PM to the reception.  A little past the lunch time, resulting in the guests already been hungry and a little grumpy. This might not happen if the mass occurred at lets say 10.00 AM or at least give enough lag time between the ceremony and the reception so that the guests can go home or find to eat by themselves. So, the memorable wedding hour had its consequences too. That's why, plan the reception time carefully. 

Pheww, quite a lot to be considered huh? I'm personally not to keen  on this memorable wedding date trend, since for the same budget you must put more effort and compromise on lots of things, unless you prepared to pay more. For me, I prefer a leisurely wedding in good quality. But don’t be deflated, this post are not intended to discourage you from choosing a memorable wedding date, just for consideration only. If you think the wedding date is well worth to be fought, then go for it!! Wedding is one in a lifetime anyrway.


These are few pictures of the day before the event 11-11-2011 during the arranging flowers' time. Lots of flower arrangements must be made by Margriet that day since one of the wedding was held for the family of the biggest supermarket chains in Bandung and few special requests have been made. Some of us worked from morning untill evening.


In the morning only the base of all the wedding flower stands had been covered with foliage, but at noon... Tadaaa!!!! all of them are done, pretty huh? These flower arrangements were for the main aisle. We’ll show you the detail next post!


This is what the main altar flower arrangement look like before it's finished.


 If you’re curious to what these wedding arrangements look like when they’re finished, don’t miss our next post, ok?

Note:
Church Décor by Team Margriet

No comments:

Post a Comment